This topic comes to mind after a gaming session last night. I showed my gang the new Traveller handbook and Buffalo Bob, who had played other versions previously, began to tell us all about his last campaign. Primarily the vicious pirate their GM kept tossing at them as an ongoing villain/antagonist. This pirate created fear in these poor PCs. I found it quite enjoyable as I had helped his GM create that NPC during a 3 hour car ride from State College to Harrisburg… We created him with the sole purpose of scaring the PCs to death. It was great to hear we had succeeded.
It was a most enjoyable car ride and here is who we created:
Gr’shal The Butcher. Aslan Pirate and Scourge of the Shipping Lanes. We never put him down on paper in the form of stats. He was more of a concept. A humorous one at that. As the PCs wound their ways through adventures, the name Gr’Shal the Butcher would be dropped here and there. Rumors, TNS flashes, then finally 3rd and 2nd party stories. He struck from nowhere, showed no mercy, instilled fear in civilian and naval captains alike.
“Gr’Shal once destroyed an entire merchant ship, cargo, crew and all, after the captain surrendered because the captain had tried to fight back at first… I didn’t want to risk that so I just cut my engines and let him board me.”
We put a strong “Dread Pirate Roberts” reputation behind him and he exploits it to his great benefit. He promises his crew great riches and always delivers… This increases their loyalty, tenfold.
To describe some of Gr’shal’s attributes: He’s charismatic, a strong leader and diplomat, has a dumb luck streak the size of the Imperium, and, oh yeah, he can cook. Cold cuts, deli trays and cheeses are his specialty. Many of his past hostages will confirm, that aside from the constant terror and fear for their life, they were very well fed…
Gr’Shal started his career as the cook on a merchantman. He was escaping his overbearing wife. When the merchantman went pirate, he stayed on because he loved cooking for the crew. How he went from cooking for them to leading them is a combination of his amazing luck, his strong charisma and the intentional food poisoning of a 60,000 ton Frontier Cruiser… It’s also a longer story… (it was a 3 hour car trip)
Further more, Gr’Shal speaks Aslan, only. The job ‘deli-chef’ was mistranslated from Aslan into Galanglic as Butcher. The meat cleaver he displays on his Jolly Roger is seen by all as a weapon, not as the kitchen utensil it is…
Aslan have the retractable claws, and one of Gr'Shals quirks is to flick his dew claw in and out. This can be (and was) quite distacting to a human hostage who sees it as a threat, not a nervous twitch...
So, as more and more captains surrender without a fight to Gr’Shal, they continue to spread stories of butchery and barbarism, so they themselves don’t look as cowardly when they surrender without a fight. Besides it is all insured cargo…
It was a most enjoyable car ride and here is who we created:
Gr’shal The Butcher. Aslan Pirate and Scourge of the Shipping Lanes. We never put him down on paper in the form of stats. He was more of a concept. A humorous one at that. As the PCs wound their ways through adventures, the name Gr’Shal the Butcher would be dropped here and there. Rumors, TNS flashes, then finally 3rd and 2nd party stories. He struck from nowhere, showed no mercy, instilled fear in civilian and naval captains alike.
“Gr’Shal once destroyed an entire merchant ship, cargo, crew and all, after the captain surrendered because the captain had tried to fight back at first… I didn’t want to risk that so I just cut my engines and let him board me.”
We put a strong “Dread Pirate Roberts” reputation behind him and he exploits it to his great benefit. He promises his crew great riches and always delivers… This increases their loyalty, tenfold.
To describe some of Gr’shal’s attributes: He’s charismatic, a strong leader and diplomat, has a dumb luck streak the size of the Imperium, and, oh yeah, he can cook. Cold cuts, deli trays and cheeses are his specialty. Many of his past hostages will confirm, that aside from the constant terror and fear for their life, they were very well fed…
Gr’Shal started his career as the cook on a merchantman. He was escaping his overbearing wife. When the merchantman went pirate, he stayed on because he loved cooking for the crew. How he went from cooking for them to leading them is a combination of his amazing luck, his strong charisma and the intentional food poisoning of a 60,000 ton Frontier Cruiser… It’s also a longer story… (it was a 3 hour car trip)
Further more, Gr’Shal speaks Aslan, only. The job ‘deli-chef’ was mistranslated from Aslan into Galanglic as Butcher. The meat cleaver he displays on his Jolly Roger is seen by all as a weapon, not as the kitchen utensil it is…
Aslan have the retractable claws, and one of Gr'Shals quirks is to flick his dew claw in and out. This can be (and was) quite distacting to a human hostage who sees it as a threat, not a nervous twitch...
So, as more and more captains surrender without a fight to Gr’Shal, they continue to spread stories of butchery and barbarism, so they themselves don’t look as cowardly when they surrender without a fight. Besides it is all insured cargo…
